Celebrating MIT Professor Edward Crawley’s Legacy in Online Learning and Beyond

Professor Edward Crawley recently retired after an extraordinary career at MIT, leaving behind a legacy of innovation and impact. From pioneering advancements in online learning to shaping programs that resonate worldwide, Professor Crawley has always found joy in helping others grasp new ideas—including through courses like System Thinking at MIT xPRO.

"I really love to teach. I've always been in positions where I could teach, and I've always enjoyed it," he shares. "You know, the fulfilling bit aside, it's just sort of fun to get people to understand new things."

As we reflect on Professor Crawley’s remarkable journey, it’s clear that his influence continues to inspire us all.

Launching a Lifelong Passion for Space, Aerospace, and Teaching

For Professor Crawley, the path to aeronautics and astronautics began during the 1960s—a time of explosive innovation in aviation and space exploration. Born in 1954, Professor Crawley vividly recalls the golden era of aerospace when new jet airplanes and rockets seemed to debut every year.

"I remember going down to the airport in Boston and Provincetown with my dad," he shares, "just watching airplanes take off." It was an era defined by the Apollo program’s ambitious quest to reach the moon, rapid advancements in aviation, and the defense buildup of the Vietnam War. 

For a young Professor Crawley, these monumental developments were impossible to ignore. “It was an incredibly busy and rapid-moving time in aerospace,” he explains, “and now, 50 or 60 years later, we’re in another aerospace boom. It feels very much like the last one.”

While his fascination with aviation and space took root early, a hiking trip in Pennsylvania solidified his decision to pursue aeronautics and astronautics as a career. “It was the summer before my sophomore year,” Professor Crawley recalls, “and I looked up at the sky and thought, ‘Space, the final frontier.’” Inspired by the iconic Star Trek line, Professor Crawley chose to dedicate himself to the challenge and wonder of space exploration. 

Reflecting on the decision, he notes, “In the hundreds of graduate school applications I’ve read over the years, I’d say a third of them share a similar story. There’s just something about space that excites people—it’s irresistible.”

His passion for education also began early, thanks to his father, a high school teacher. He recalls moments in his childhood when he would step in as an impromptu teacher. “Once, I was with my dad in his classroom, and he turned to me and said, ‘Ed, you want to give a lecture on space?’ I was in the sixth grade, teaching high school juniors and seniors. I pulled out the chalk and just started lecturing.” The students loved it, and Professor Crawley discovered he had a knack for explaining complex topics.

Pursuing Higher Education—and a Career—at MIT 

Enrolling at MIT felt almost inevitable for Professor Crawley, yet it was nearly a missed opportunity. Growing up in Cambridge and Belmont, Massachusetts, he was immersed in the MIT community long before officially joining it. “I wouldn’t say I went there frequently, but more than occasionally,” he says. As a high schooler, he attended Saturday morning math courses for local students and explored experiments in the Wright Brothers Wind Tunnel. 

Despite this deep exposure to MIT, the school wasn’t always his first choice. “I was sort of in this mode where I thought, maybe I should go someplace else,” he recalls. It wasn’t until a neighbor invited him to meet MIT’s dean of admissions that things began to shift. “I didn’t even know I was going to see the dean of admissions,” he says with a laugh. Encouraged to apply, Professor Crawley ultimately decided to give it a shot—and the rest, as they say, is history. “It wasn’t a sure thing, but I stayed at MIT. And looking back, I’m glad I did.”

Joining MIT as a faculty member was a natural continuation of Professor Crawley’s academic journey. “I had worked as an undergraduate and graduate researcher in the aero department,” he explains, “and the next step just seemed to be becoming a junior faculty member.” 

Over the decades, Professor Crawley has witnessed significant changes at MIT, though he emphasizes that the institution’s core values remain steadfast. “The strategy and culture of universities evolve slowly, and that’s a good thing,” he says. “Universities are both inventors and preservers of knowledge. They store knowledge for the days when it’s needed to solve problems.”

His early career highlights reflect the institution’s mission to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship. As a young faculty member, he focused on writing papers and addressing issues critical to NASA and the US Department of Defense. “Those were the major funders of aerospace research at the time,” he explains.

Pivotal Moments in Professor Crawley’s Career 

Professor Crawley describes his early days as an MIT faculty member as a time of growth and discovery, shaped by collaboration with bright graduate students and opportunities to tackle big challenges.

The turning point in his career came after he earned tenure and won a major NASA award for the Space Engineering Research Center. This project allowed him to explore not only his technical interests but also his broader social and political ones. “It kept me busy and gave me a platform to expand my influence,” he explains.

In the late 1980s, MIT launched the Leaders for Manufacturing (LFM) program, now called Leaders for Global Operations (LGO), in response to concerns about the United States’ waning manufacturing dominance. Professor Crawley views this program as a hallmark of MIT’s commitment to addressing real-world challenges. “One thing that distinguishes MIT is its willingness to take on society’s most pressing problems,” he says. “LFM was about strengthening industrial capability in the US at a time when it was sorely needed.”

Following the success of LFM, Professor Crawley was invited to help create the System Design and Management (SDM) program, which focused on upstream activities like product and system design. Partnering with Thomas McNulty, a fellow faculty member, Professor Crawley helped shape SDM into a complementary initiative that addressed critical industry needs. “The idea was to cover the spectrum—from manufacturing to design—and give industry the tools to thrive,” he says.

By the mid-1990s, Professor Crawley had transitioned to department head of Aeronautics and Astronautics, a role he held until 2003. At that point, he was tapped by former MIT president Chuck Vest to take over the Cambridge-MIT Institute (CMI), and his leadership helped significantly strengthen the program. Upon returning to MIT, Professor Crawley spearheaded the New Engineering Education Transformation (NEET) initiative, which was launched to reimagine engineering education for the modern era.

One of the most significant milestones in his career came in 2011 when he was appointed the founding president of the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) in Moscow. “Things were much more optimistic then,” he notes. “Russia had just joined the WTO and was cleaning up its intellectual property issues. There were also discussions about NATO and EU membership.”

Pioneering Online Learning at MIT

Professor Crawley’s involvement in online learning at MIT dates back to 1995—when the concept was practically unheard of in higher education. “When we opened the door to the SDM program, no online credit-bearing program had ever been offered at MIT,” he explains. As co-director of SDM, Professor Crawley saw the potential for online learning to extend MIT’s reach and impact. “It was a strategic decision,” he says. “Stanford was ahead of us, and we couldn’t not be in the online learning business.”

The proposal for SDM was as much about building the infrastructure for online education as it was about system design and management. Professor Crawley himself taught the first lecture of the first online course, marking a transformative moment for MIT.

The vision for OpenCourseWare

Around the same time, Professor Crawley was part of the committee that laid the groundwork for MIT’s OpenCourseWare (OCW), a free and open collection of material from thousands of MIT courses. Initially, the idea of free online courses seemed counterintuitive for a business model. “At first, the question was whether we could charge enough to make up for MIT’s substantial costs,” Professor Crawley recalls. After determining that the cost structure made this goal impractical, the committee pivoted to a bold alternative.

“Dick Yue, the associate dean of Engineering at the time, suggested, ‘Why don’t we give it away?’” Crawley remembers. This decision, though altruistic on the surface, was also strategic. “The idea was to set a benchmark that very few universities could meet, showcasing MIT’s resources and reputation.” This move ultimately attracted significant funding and established MIT as a leader in open education.

The Value of Online Learning

For Professor Crawley, the appeal of online learning has always been its ability to scale knowledge and influence. “In order to get the reach you need to have an impact, you have to engage at scale,” he says. Online platforms offered a way to transition traditional models, like week-long summer courses, into accessible and flexible learning experiences for a broader audience. Initiatives like MIT xPRO built on this foundation.

While some worried that teaching online might fundamentally differ from in-person instruction, Professor Crawley found the transition surprisingly smooth. “Good teaching is good teaching,” he says. “Whether it’s in a classroom or on a screen, the principles are the same. You just need to adapt how you engage learners.”

The pivotal role of online learning became clear during the spring of 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic forced higher education institutions worldwide to shift abruptly to remote instruction. “In those magic two weeks, we stopped teaching in class and started teaching online,” Professor Crawley recalls. “It went as smoothly as it did because there were people in key positions who had experience with MIT xPRO, edX, and similar programs.” The infrastructure and expertise developed through years of experimentation and innovation proved invaluable.

Over time, Professor Crawley has witnessed the profound impact of online learning on professional learners—students often already established in their careers who seek advanced knowledge to take the next step. “There are a surprising number of people, particularly in the SDM program, who have told me they weren’t sure this material was that important until they went to their first job interview,” he says. “Then they found themselves using the framework of the course as the format for their responses.”

Looking ahead, Professor Crawley sees further developing and scaling online learning as critical to its future. “We can’t say, ‘Well, it was a good experiment,’ and then go back to teaching 100 students in the classroom the way we always did,” he explains. Instead, he stresses the importance of continuing to expand these platforms and forging partnerships with other institutions to sustain and enhance their impact.

Leaving Behind a Legacy of Innovation and Collaboration 

The breadth of Professor Crawley’s contributions speaks volumes. Yet, he’s quick to attribute success to the teams and colleagues he’s worked with. “I was perhaps a catalyst for some initiatives,” he says, “but far from a sole or even majority contributor. These were all tremendously multivariable, multi-participant programs.”

Professor Crawley’s self-described role as a “serial academic entrepreneur” captures the essence of his career—a series of groundbreaking ventures that collectively reshaped how students and educators engage with science and engineering.

For Professor Crawley, it’s not about a single defining accomplishment but a cadence of contributions that, together, have made a lasting difference. He expresses deep gratitude to MIT and his collaborators, recognizing their shared role in these achievements. 

All of us here at MIT xPRO wish Professor Crawley the very best in his retirement. But if you think he’s slowing down, think again. While he jokes about “doing more and getting paid less” these days, his passion for teaching and connecting with learners remains as strong as ever. 

Despite our suggestions to record a pitch for the System Thinking course, Professor Crawley insists on hosting live marketing webinars, saying, “I’ll do them live for as long as I can!” You can still catch him in live webinars promoting the course and taking questions from webinar attendees.